Meaningful Work & Librarian Agency

Exploring Job Control Among Academic Instruction Librarians

Matthew Weirick Johnson

University of South Florida Libraries, Tampa campus

Welcome

Agenda

  • defining job control
  • burnout & job control
  • in academic libraries
  • strategies

Previous Work

Data

  • 245 academic instruction librarians completed job control inventory and Copenhagen Burnout Inventory
  • 307 academic instruction librarians completed job control inventory
  • 40 interviews with academic instruction librarians
    • 20 high job control
    • 20 low job control

Job Control

“the ability to exert some influence over one’s environment so that the environment becomes more rewarding or less threatening” (Ganster, 1989)

Dimensions of Job Control

  • tasks
  • scheduling
  • work pacing
  • physical environment
  • resources
  • decision-making
  • interaction
  • mobility

Burnout & Job Control

Burnout

  • an occupational phenomenon resulting from prolonged workplace stress characterized by
    • increased emotional exhaustion
    • increased depersonalization or cynicism
    • reduced professional accomplishment or efficacy
  • “one of the most common psychological conditions experienced by employees” (Koutsimani et al, 2019)

The Relationship Between Burnout & Job Control

A linear regression model showing the negative and moderate effect of job control on burnout

Figure 1

 

  • the model to predict burnout with job control explains a statistically significant and moderate proportion of variance (R2 = 0.20, F(1, 243) = 59.53, p < .001, adj. R2 = 0.19). Within this model the effect of job control is statistically significant and negative (beta = -16.67, 95% CI [-20.93, -12.42], t(243) = -7.72, p < .001; Std. beta = -0.44, 95% CI [-0.56, -0.33]).

::: {.notes} As we think about burnout and job control, I just wanted to show that burnout and job control are related. The model to predict burnout with job control explains a statistically significant and moderate proportion of variance, so 20% of the variance in burnout is accommodated for by burnout and the effect is negative. So, we can predict that someone with high job control will experience less burnout than someone with lower job control.

Self-Determination Theory

  • a theory of human motivation that differentiates between autonomous and controlled motivation
  • autonomy is one of three basic psychological needs (along with competence and relatedness)

In academic libraries

Surveillance

  • from colleagues
  • poor office setups

Research

  • I have to do it, but I have complete control over what I do

Some controversies

  • one-shot instruction
  • types of instruction (online & programmatic in particular)
  • working with faculty (collaboration, valuing expertise)
  • guidelines for instruction
  • the value of a foot in the door
  • freedom in instruction (can do anything as long as don’t complain to supervisor but some are much more limited – question of professionalism)

Job control as panacea

  • with great job control comes great responsibility

Strategies

  • person-centered management
  • professional development
  • building trust
  • locus of control
  • minimal and optimal

Person-centered Management

  • social exchange theory

Locus of Control

Building Trust

  • if you trust people, they will act trustworthy

Misc

In my previous role as a librarian, I always felt like research was the main area where I had complete control. I could make the choices that I wanted to make without having to get them approved by my manager. However, other aspects of my role, especially within the institution were heavily managed Prevention of burnout and the fear of burnout became a reason to keep me from taking on work that was meaningful and interesting to me. In my view, this was specifically an reaction to a previous departure that was attributed to burnout. The irony is that I left after 3 and a half years, not because of burnout but because there was no longer room for me to grow. It seems, to me at least, that there has been a somewhat recent shift in libraries away from grit, resilience, and the idea of doing more with less to the idea of doing less with less. I think the prevalence of sessions about workload at this conference actually speak to that shift. However, one of my concerns is that as we do less with less, we resist innovation and return to the “tried and true.” For example, instead of boldly abandoning the one-shot and focusing on faculty development, we might lean in entirely to the one-shot. In a way, it seems easy because it’s well-known and has been done. This might be seen as doing less with less by avoiding doing anything new and sticking to our “bread and butter.” The challenge that I see here is that I don’t think the majority of librarians find one-shots exhilarating, but exhausting. In fact, in talking with librarians, so many discuss one-shots in relation to a machine or a factory. It’s not fulfilling work. As we think about workloads and doing less with less, I think we need to consider meaningful and engaging work, and library managers and leaders need to work with librarians to decide what they give up and what a minimum viable service model looks like. I think too frequently, managers make decision to do less with less, and then drop the interesting work they’re doing or resist proposals for innovation because there isn’t capacity. In some cases, this may make sense. However, in other cases, there may be opportunities to change our work to be more efficient. For example, abandoning one shot library instruction in favor of faculty and TA development around information literacy provides an opportunity for deeper, more meaningful instruction while potentially requiring less capacity. However, if we consider one shot instruction as a baseline or a requirement for library instruction, and then add teach-the-teacher approaches on top, it obviously creates more work and stretches capacity. In this sense, innovation is simply additional work rather than replacing work or making work more efficient. We see this in other library instruction as well, such as multiple engagement with the same class or embedded librarianship, which might be great and meaningful models of teaching but require more and more work.

minimal and optimal